I read Chris Neilson's DVD review of Millennium Mambo at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=31667 and...

At first I was surprised to see that this was being rereleased, but apparently it isn't. Aside from the odd decision to publish a second review 3 years after the first, what really bothered me was the video part of the review. I would like to assume someone who states something like "Softness in the image is attributable to choices made by Hao and Ping-bin not to flaws in the DVD master." would actually have some convincing information to back this up. Instead, I checked another review of this disc (http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview/millemambo.htm) That shows this disc is softer than another disc and this is at least partially due to a PAL to NTSC frame blended transfer. That seems like a pretty major mistake to make.

If you think that's a bad review take a gander at the Edvard Munch 2-disc review which comes from a reviewer who doesn't know what he's got in front of him. Also, a nice 2 stars for video quality to this very important (and outstanding) release. Not that a DVDTalk review makes it or breaks it but a bad one from here certainly doesn't help for a film like this.

I don't really have a problem with the Munch review. There are different valid ways someone can judge quality and it's understandable that the reviewer may not want people to expect Hollywood level gloss. And the review does highly recommend the disc. I do think it would have been helpful to have more information about the extras for people who already own the disc released last year.

I have a real problem with reviews that make unsupported claims about filmmakers intentions and/or are technically inaccurate.

Well, if your looking at Edvard Munch they should probably be told/aware it was shot 16mm and etc. This is basically the best IT CAN LOOK in general so I think you have to grade it upon what could be done for the film and not how this compares to a Harry Potter 5 type production. I suppose I am a bit harsh on the review since how important I consider the release to be.

And yes Millennium Mambo is probably worse since its a random review after some years hyping its video quality.